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The sharp-eyed amongst you will notice a new addition to my blog design – a creative commons license. You’ll find it at the bottom of the left column. You may have to scroll down a way! It looks like this:

We’ve been learning about Creative Commons and Public Domain licensing in our Online Research class, and we are all busy going through our images and media on our blogs to make sure we are giving credit where it’s due, thanking those who have allowed us to use their media. Alternatively we may have to choose new media when we realise we haven’t got the creator’s permission to use something, or if we can’t track down where we got it from (a very common occurrence!).

However, we really need to protect ourselves as writers and media creators too. Assuming we want our work to be shared – how can we let people know?

I thought about taking some aphorisms or simply received wisdom, to see if they apply to how you should behave online.

The one I always quote in class is “two ears, one mouth, use them in that order” which is based on a quote I can at best attribute to Epictetus (along with the majority of netizens.) Here’s a few more that I think would make good blog titles.

A picture speaks a thousand words.

You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

No time like the present.

There’s no such thing as bad publicity.

Never put off til tomorrow what you can do today.

If you’ve got nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought an idiot, than open your mouth and prove it.

There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.

If you want to ride two horses at once you should join a circus.

God gives every bird its worm… but He doesn’t throw it in the nest.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

And one that I’m reminded of every time I see a “Britain First” Facebook post shared:

What can you expect from a pig, but a grunt?

Any more suggestions? Posts links to any blogposts inspired in the comments please 🙂 Have fun.

Will we be buying clockwork goggles from TopShop this Spring? So I’d noticed designers like Tom Dixon making gorgeous steampunk nic-nacs for the home, but this gorgeous infographic from IBM predicts the mainstreaming of steampunk.

“Through its sentiment analysis, IBM has found that steampunk is evolving into a cultural ‘meme’ via a series of leaps across cultural domains (such as fiction, visual arts, etc). A combination of science fiction and fantasy, steampunk is a sub-genre based around gothic machinery and the industrialized civilization of the 19th century. Rooted in the designs of the industrialized civilization of the 19th century, steampunk is a retro-futuristic style of fashion that is influenced by the works of Jules Verne, Nikola Tesla, HG Wells and more.” >> Full report on how Steampunk is Trending.

Students creating learning for other students, and making money from it too? If only.

But that’s what’s promised by Flashnotes – a new collaborative peer-to-peer learning marketplace where students can offer services or create resources such as flashcards for other students, and earn a weekly commission on their sale. I’m an enthusiast both for using technology for learning, and for social business models, so this should be right up my street.

Flashnotes is on a mission to provide college students with two things — more money and better grades. On Flashnotes.com, college students sell and buy course-specific study materials — study guides, notes, flashcards, video tutorials, and live video help. Flashnotes.com Pays2Study (TM) approach empowers smart college students to make money from their own study material while helping other students study smarter to get better grades.

A quick look through the busy marketplace, shows one enterprising student has earned $126 selling a Final Exam Study Guide, so it’s obviously striking a chord with students. Though as a lecturer it leaves me feeling a little uncomfortable, and not just because of money changing hands for what I would like to encourage as commonplace collaboration, but because of the potential plagiarism issues. Would you like your “complete semester notes” – as translated by one of your students – to be for sale online?

The top social media questions marketers want answered can be summarized in the following keywords: tactics, engagement, measurement, tools and audience – in that order. As the social media marketing industry continues its massive expansion, the needs of marketers shift. Below are the top issues marketers are facing today with social media marketing. At least 83% of marketers surveyed felt they are struggling to answer all of the following questions:

TACTICS: What social tactics are most effective? The number-one question marketers want answered (91%) is which tactics work best. This high number is likely in response to the constant changes taking place across many social networks.

ENGAGEMENT: What are the best ways to engage my audience with social media? Figuring out how to best connect with people remains high on the list of questions marketers want answered (89%). As more businesses become social, those that best engage will stand out.

MEASUREMENT: How do I measure the return on my social media marketing? A significant 88% of marketers want to know how to measure their return on investment for social media activities. This question has been top of mind for marketers for the last four years. Clearly very few marketers have figured this one out.

TOOLS: What are the best social management tools? As interactions increase and newer social networks continue to grow, the need for tools to simplify social media marketers’ jobs becomes more important. A whopping 85% feel like they don’t know what tools are best.

AUDIENCE: How do I find my target audience with social media? Figuring out how to target customers and prospects is a big concern for marketers (83%). Because of the enormous size of social networks combined with ever-changing ways to connect with people, marketers need guidance.

It’s that time of year again, when I clean up my blog and sweep away the old to make way for the new term, and the new courses and new students that it will bring. Things may change before your very eyes as I muck about with fonts, colours, ideas and menus. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Thought-provoking article by Nathan Jurgenson to remember when next your elderly relative accuses you of being anti-social because you’re using a smartphone: The IRL Fetish

“Digital information has long been portrayed as an elsewhere, a new and different cyberspace, a tendency I have coined the term “digital dualism” to describe: the habit of viewing the online and offline as largely distinct. The common (mis)understanding is experience is zero-sum: time spent online means less spent offline. We are either jacked into the Matrix or not; we are either looking at our devices or not. When camping, I have service or not, and when out to eat, my friend is either texting or not. The smartphone has come to be “the perfect symbol” of leaving the here and now for something digital, some other, cyber, space.”

It is wrong to say “IRL” to mean offline: Facebook is real life.

Facebook doesn’t curtail the offline but depends on it. What is most crucial to our time spent logged on is what happened when logged off; it is the fuel that runs the engine of social media. The photos posted, the opinions expressed, the check-ins that fill our streams are often anchored by what happens when disconnected and logged-off. The Web has everything to do with reality; it comprises real people with real bodies, histories, and politics. ”